Git how to use `set-url` of remote repository

Question

I need to change the url for an remote repository, so I was looking at the docs at https://git-scm.com/docs/git-remote but when I do:

git remote set-url [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git

I get the message usage: git remote set-url [--push] <name> <newurl> [<oldurl>]

I do not really understand, should I type:

git remote set-url --push gitusername [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git

or what is <name> standing for? And should I include the old url?

UPDATE

So when I type:

git remote set-url --push origin [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git

And after that type git remote -v

I get this:

origin  [email protected]:oldusername/oldrepo.git (fetch)
origin  [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git (push)

How can I change the fetch?

Answer 1

You need to set the URL for an existing remote:

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git

Using the command above will update both the fetch and push URLs.

Using --push will only update the push URL:

git remote set-url --push origin [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git
git remote -v

origin  [email protected]:oldusername/oldrepo.git (fetch)
origin  [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git (push)

After this point, there is now a separate entry in .git/config:

[remote "origin"]
    url = [email protected]:oldusername/oldrepo.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    pushurl = [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git

Now, because there are separate entries, using set-url without --push will only update fetch, instead of both:

git remote set-url origin [email protected]:thirdusername/thirdrepository.git
git remote -v 

origin  [email protected]:thirdusername/thirdrepository.git (fetch)
origin  [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git (push)

If you want to go back to the original state, you can either delete the pushurl entry from .git/config, or use set-url --delete --push:

git remote set-url --delete --push origin [email protected]:gitusername/repository.git

After this, calling set-url without --push should go back to changing both push and fetch URLs.

Answer 2

It's the name of the remote, eg. origin

The names are also visible when listing the remotes, so you could check your current name (probably also origin)

git remote -v
origin  https://github.com/schacon/ticgit (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/schacon/ticgit (push)

And useful when using multiple remotes, e.g. the if you fork a GitHub repo, then you could have a remote to your fork online and the original repo (sometimes called "upstream" by convention)